IIRC, Drill Land GC (and Donkey Konga JP) couldn't save if you booted via FreeLoader.
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Hype check: Mr Driller DrillLand (out now!) Who’s excited?
- Thread starter Deleted member 7217
- Start date
Appreciate the heads up! That's all I needed to justify the triple-dip.
They wanted the game to be a launch title in the US so cut the content as it was unfinished at the time.
Okay I played the demo last night, and I'm not sure if I understand the appeal of the gameplay just yet.
First of all, the music was fucking 11/10. What a surprise!
Once I started playing, though, I found I was mainly just pointing down and mashing A until I got to the bottom. I was playing on casual so that may have been part of it. I actually did die the first run right before reaching 500M. The second run I practically button-mashed my way straight down.
So I guess the skill is in avoiding getting squished? What's the "trick?" I did notice that blocks would stop falling when connecting to the same color, kind of like an "edge" in Catherine. Is that what you try to watch for as you go down? You position yourself such that similar color blocks fall on each other?
I wish there was a more involved tutorial.
First of all, the music was fucking 11/10. What a surprise!
Once I started playing, though, I found I was mainly just pointing down and mashing A until I got to the bottom. I was playing on casual so that may have been part of it. I actually did die the first run right before reaching 500M. The second run I practically button-mashed my way straight down.
So I guess the skill is in avoiding getting squished? What's the "trick?" I did notice that blocks would stop falling when connecting to the same color, kind of like an "edge" in Catherine. Is that what you try to watch for as you go down? You position yourself such that similar color blocks fall on each other?
I wish there was a more involved tutorial.
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You want to avoid getting squished, yes. When blocks are the same color, they'll connect to each other as they fall. However, if four or more connect, they'll disappear (in some modes anyway). Basically, you want to use that aspect to your advantage without accidentally having something fall on you. As you go on, it also starts getting harder to easily come across air that isn't surrounded by those poisonous brown blocks. It might seem easy but keep in mind that the demo is only stage 1 of World Drill Tour, which is basically the standard Mr. Driller arcade mode. Once you get to Stage 2 and above on the attractions they get HARD, even on Casual Mode which gives you extra life/HP and lowers the stage requirements. Here are the other modes:
Star Driller: Similar to World Drill Tour, you have to reach the bottom of the tunnel with a limited air supply, but this time there are powerups littered all over the place that do things like warp you to a different spot or blow up nearby blocks. Unlike World Drill Tour, this mode (and every other one as well) forces you to play as one of the human Drillers, so you can't "cheat" by using Puchi's extra jump height or Horinger-Z's squish protection.
Horror Night House: In this mode you have HP instead of air. Ghosts are all over the place and if you drill a block that one is in, they'll all turn into bats and attack you to lower your HP. You have to defeat them by picking up some holy water and injecting it into the ghost block before drilling it. They'll drop a Drystal, and once you collect enough Drystals you move to the next floor. Clear all the floors to win.
Hole of Druaga - Instead of air, you have HP that depletes by 1 with every block you drill. You can collect Dristones that have special effects like restoring HP, destroying blocks of a certain color, and giving you a shield to protect against being squished. Once you reach the bottom of a tunnel, you get a Warp Dristone to take you back to the top. The stages are laid out like a dungeon, so sometimes there's a door on the side of the tunnel that you can enter to go into a different tunnel. Ultimately you're trying to find a key that will unlock the door at the bottom of the final tunnel to fight Druaga, who you have to beat using the Dristones you've collected.
Drindy Adventure - By far the hardest mode. In this one, there's no air or HP at all. You simply have to collect golden idols and reach the bottom of the tunnel. However, like the mode's inspiration, there are lots of traps lying around that will kill you if you're not careful. The most common of these are boulders that will roll if they have the room to and will swiftly flatten you, and they're nearly always placed near the golden idols just to make things difficult. There are also other traps like spike walls that will stab you if you don't immediately move away from them, and fire traps that shoot flames on a timer.
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Thank you for that extremely thorough reply.
I think maybe I'll check out some more experienced players play the game a bit on YouTube or Twitch if I can find some, and then return to the demo and try again. I love the presentation and the music, so I really want to "get" the gameplay, but first impressions left me a little confused.
Yeah, pressing down and mashing A only works for the standard 500m stage—and even then, you need to keep in mind the game's arcade roots. If you want to just play to clear stages in the standard mode, OK, fine, you can, but really it's meant to be a score challenge. You want to clear stages as quickly as possible, without dying, while collecting all the air capsules and finding as many hidden items (e.g. Undergrounders) as possible. Also, the higher your score, the more mileage rewards you're given, which in turn can be traded for collectibles and play upgrades at the shops.
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Played the game this morning and I can't definitely say this is a recommend, though maybe not at $30.
I didn't realize the EU version released a few months after NA / JP.
Come to think of it, that's probably why I never imported Drill Spirits EU...
WHY IS LEVEL 3 WORLD DRILL TOUR SO HUGE
Somehow I didn't notice both the fact that the play area grows increasingly larger with each level and that I had unlocked Usagi until just now. He breaks multiple blocks at once and can jump two tiles... and even with those I'm still going to need items to beat this.
Somehow I didn't notice both the fact that the play area grows increasingly larger with each level and that I had unlocked Usagi until just now. He breaks multiple blocks at once and can jump two tiles... and even with those I'm still going to need items to beat this.
I had to buy 10 lives and a barrier. My strategy in the end involved just going down the left hand side of 300 and 400 as 500 forces you to grab idols anyway.
I'm struggling with standard and the space theme but I've cleared the rest of the stage 2s.
I prefer Mr Driller 2 and have spent hours on the pc version, though could never finish the very hard stage (north Pole) . Reached around 1400-1500 the most.
I liked also Drill Land but it annoys me that they made the hard mode so difficult after finishing the game, that you have to buy power ups in order to finish it, which kinda ruins the gameplay. And if you do, score is not registered.
Also I set controller buttons to turbo for this game.
I liked also Drill Land but it annoys me that they made the hard mode so difficult after finishing the game, that you have to buy power ups in order to finish it, which kinda ruins the gameplay. And if you do, score is not registered.
Also I set controller buttons to turbo for this game.
Believe it or not, this was done by the very same dev; Infinity Co., Ltd. :P
I think this is just inherent to the game itself; I remember observing this when I watched footage of the Nintendo Switch demo a few days ago. Horror Night House is particularly bad about overlapping bat sound effects, too. (NB: I'm also playing the Steam version.)
I had played the gamecube version via emulation years ago and there are indeed some issues with the ost transition and sfx.
He's the only one. I think you unlock him by beating the main story.
Thanks for the confirmations. I had just switched over to a new sound card and was worried it was settings or compatibility issues. It's annoying but at least it's not technically something wrong.
Wow, they did a great job with this!!! I really enjoyed this on Gamecube and play regularly, so it's impressive that they didn't compromise it somehow.
Just finished the boss fight and I'm enjoying Level 2. Drindy was always my favourite, but being able to read the item names in Druaga helps a lot!! Really fantastic.
I bought it on Switch but will probably double dip on PC in the future.
Has anyone else played 2 vs 2 in battle mode with rumble enabled gamepads? It becomes an amazing game where you defend your teammate who has discreetly signalled that they know where the treasure is. One of my favourite 4 player couch co-op games!
Just finished the boss fight and I'm enjoying Level 2. Drindy was always my favourite, but being able to read the item names in Druaga helps a lot!! Really fantastic.
I bought it on Switch but will probably double dip on PC in the future.
Has anyone else played 2 vs 2 in battle mode with rumble enabled gamepads? It becomes an amazing game where you defend your teammate who has discreetly signalled that they know where the treasure is. One of my favourite 4 player couch co-op games!
Posted a comment there but gotta reply again now that I see you here too, cause this part:I liked it! And the PC version works fine enough. My review is up:
You should play Namco’s lost arcade-action classic, Mr. Driller DrillLand
Japan-only GameCube gem now out on PC, Switch, is an ode to Namco's arcade heyday.arstechnica.com
"Meanwhile, DrillLand's perky J-Pop soundtrack, presented here at full fidelity, isn't identical to Katamari's classic tunes by any stretch, but the up-tempo charm and vocal-melody components are almost identical."
The soundtrack is amazing, but outside of a few songs it's not J-Pop. I'm not sure what genre(s) to consider it exactly but it's not that.
Yeah I had FreeLoader (totally forgot the name until your post) and had enough memory cards that I'm pretty sure I tried a dedicated card and still wouldn't work. I never got into anything besides the World Tour cause that and having no clue how the other modes played. Glad to finally know how to play and save unlock progress. (And not have to swap discs or anything to boot the game!)
I feel like that's always been the case, like the effects are additive and amplify rather than mixing together properly. Course I could also see that being intentional so you know when a bunch of shit is goin down around you.
Didn't even know there was 2 on 2 battle! I thought the multiplayer was just free for all stuff all these years.
Does anybody have any tips for Druaga? I have no problem with the other four modes, but I've yet to beat Druaga and I'd like to be able to play the harder stages of the others...
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You need the key to open the side door, and expect to teleport back up to the top to reach those doors. The flying boss is colour coded and harmed with items, not drilling.
I wonder if it's a left over from its arcade roots. Loud attract sounds.
I know how the mode is played. My issues are more with health management. I've gotten the key plenty of times, and tend to use healing Dristones pretty freely, but I never seem to have enough HP left to actually get back to the Boss Door with it.
Prior to this I had only played the PS1 port of the original, but wanted to support Namco bringing back their forgotten IPs so I bit despite the kinda steep asking price and boy oh boy, am I glad I did. It's straight up a masterpiece of a puzzle game. I'm absolutely addicted to it.
Beat the story in one sitting on Normal despite having never made it more past 200 in the original and have been trying my best at the level 2s...They're extremely hard, but still so fun.
Just now I got my first level 2 win, feels great!
I feel like HNH is the most reasonable challenge out of all the modes, but my favorite is definitely Hole of Druaga. I'm a big fan of Mystery Dungeon games and that feels just like one, it's absolutely brilliant... I sure wish level 2 wasn't so brutal tho, lol.
Beat the story in one sitting on Normal despite having never made it more past 200 in the original and have been trying my best at the level 2s...They're extremely hard, but still so fun.
Just now I got my first level 2 win, feels great!
I feel like HNH is the most reasonable challenge out of all the modes, but my favorite is definitely Hole of Druaga. I'm a big fan of Mystery Dungeon games and that feels just like one, it's absolutely brilliant... I sure wish level 2 wasn't so brutal tho, lol.
I guess we never got an OT for this game as it's pretty niche. But damn I bought it this morning and played throughout the day. What an awesome game...the only thing that had me on the fence was the price. Yes, it's a little expensive but I will for sure get my money's worth. Everything about this game is great.
Yeah totally worth it, didn't realize I already got a few hours in cause I just play it in smaller bouts. Had the original but could only get so much into it cause the lack of saving (using that Freeloader thing), nice to finally unlock and play deeper into the game.
And to finally see/hear the end credit song in context, it was so beautiful 😭
(I realized I never looked up FAQs or videos way back so never got spoiled on anything besides listening to the soundtrack)
The more I play the more I agree with your assessment of the price. I can see myself sinking a hundred hours or so into this game with the amount of replayibility.
The problem with, say, the demo is that folks probably will play once or twice and not begin to start seeing some of the depth and different ways of digging that go with it.
And that's just the classic mode. There's multiple other modes and with the diff characters there's more than enough to do.
Edit: I meant to say about the demo is don't do a couple runs and uninstall. Let it sit on your device overnight and come back the next day. You'll begin to see how the tiles fall and merge together, you'll understand how to maneuver around and manipulate bad spots to get to the air, and so on.
And that's just the classic mode. There's multiple other modes and with the diff characters there's more than enough to do.
Edit: I meant to say about the demo is don't do a couple runs and uninstall. Let it sit on your device overnight and come back the next day. You'll begin to see how the tiles fall and merge together, you'll understand how to maneuver around and manipulate bad spots to get to the air, and so on.
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Been playing this a lot recently and enjoy all the modes except Star Driller. I hate it. I can't beat level 2 even with a cheat item on.
Why the hell do I lose air faster (WAY TOO FAST) the further down I drill in this mode? Is it harder to breathe in a deeper part of a vacuum?
Why the hell do I lose air faster (WAY TOO FAST) the further down I drill in this mode? Is it harder to breathe in a deeper part of a vacuum?
Never played this but my 5 year old just asked if I could buy it because he liked the music in the trailer. This actually looks right up my alley, and it's 50% off right now on the e-shop!
All the music in the game is soooo good. It's really over produced for a game of its style but it works in its favour. Also every stage has its own music which is nice.